Harvesting honey saves forests and lives

Dear Global Giving Friends,

Our apiculture program that creates alternative incomes and incentivizes mangrove forest conservation has now come to full fruition! Our original village of Nai Nang, in conjunction with MAP, was able to successfully train an additional two villages in beekeeping, and those two new villages - Bang Kang Khao & Klong Lu - have now begun apiculture programs of their own.

The apiculture groups in each village have constructed their own beekeeping boxes, which bees have already begun colonizing. Nai Nang has already received over 450 visitors in 2019 who come to see the program in action - and they are now able to pass on their knowledge to other groups. They have also been so successful at selling their honey and the associated products that they have agreed to buy all of the honey from the other villages in the program to then sell, and have begun assisting other groups in their own marketing.

As part of the program, each apiculture group also participates in mangrove conservation efforts at least once a month - ranging from trash cleanup to organizing an environmental education at the community school.

MAP has been working with a network of villages on it's "Community-Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration" method and program, and the apiculture program has allowed the diffrent villages and groups to collectively come together and also share their own experiences with mangrove restoration. This is the start of something, where disparate villages can pool their knowledge and efforts, increasing each's capacity to carry out mangrove conservation and restoration.

We want to say thank you to all of you who made the continuation and culmination of this project possible - it demonstrates well the ability of livelihood and grassroots efforts to help with effective environmental conservation, and hope that it can serve as a model for other communities in other project areas around the globe!

With much appreciation,

The MAP Team

A quick update on the apiculture and livelihood trainings in Thailand that have been supported through GlobalGiving:

Thanks to all of you who donated, we have now been able to raise more than $6,000 for communities to undergo trainings in apiculture and associated livelihood activities!

In the central community of Nai Nang, the project has become so successful that they are now helping train other communities within the network in the livelihood practices associated with beekeeping – all of which in turn help the mangrove forests they call home. Besides being sold in its raw form, members of the communities, including women’s groups, are also turning it into value-added products such as soap, shampoo, conditioner, and medicinal balm.

All of this helps bring in extra income for the communities, all while promoting healthy mangrove forests. The wild bees need the mangroves in order to produce honey – and in turn the bees ensure the mangrove forests stay healthy. Additionally, ten percent of all the honey products sold are put into a fund that further supports environmental conservation within the area.

Such projects incentivize community involvement in conserving their local ecosystems – which also happen to be critical for the rest of the planet. Beyond Thailand, this project demonstrates the potential of such livelihood initiatives to help conserve mangrove forests globally. Part of MAP’s strategy for long-term conservation and restoration for these imperative ecosystems rests on integrating communities into the process. Now, thanks to your generous support, this project has helped both these communities do just that, helping to keep both them and their vital mangrove forests healthy for the future. 

From the MAP Team and mangrove communities, thank you for you support!

Regards,

The MAP Team

Links:

• http://www.mangroveactionproject.org

Dear Supporters,

Thanks to your outpouring of support, we are able to now move forward with expanding our beekeeping & livelihood training to two additional villages along the Andaman Coast of Thailand. This in turn will help to incentivize the conservation – and eventually restoration – of mangrove forests along the coast, which has been largely degraded due to poorly-managed shrimp farming and development practices.

Thus far in the campaign, we have raised over $5,500. At a price of $2,500 per village, this will be enough to provide full training and supplies (beekeeping suits, hives, and equipment for producing products) to two additional villages to begin beekeeping and honey harvesting, which will incentivize and enable them to conserve the local mangrove forests on which the bees depend. In cooperation with our central village of Nai Nang, we will be able to bring these livelihood trainings and capabilities to additional mangrove families, allowing for both an increased standard of living for these communities, and a renewed assurance for the continuation of their mangrove forests.

Some of the leftover money will also be going towards the next step of empowering these communities to conserve and restore their mangrove forests, by training them in our Community-Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration methodology. Participation in this imperative program will be encouraged in large part through the expansion of our apiculture program – all possible thanks to your generous support!

Warm Regards,

The MAP Team